Notre Dame games are staying on NBC.
The school announced Saturday that it had extended its contract with NBC through 2029. The network has broadcast Notre Dame home football games since 1991.
“There is no better tradition than Notre Dame Football in South Bend, and we are thrilled to keep that tradition within the NBC Sports family as we extend our relationship as the exclusive home of Fighting Irish home games through the end of the decade,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in a statement. “With enhanced rights that allow us to present Notre Dame Football on NBC as well as across Peacock and additional platforms, we look forward to bringing the Fighting Irish to fans in more ways than ever before.”
The Notre Dame TV deal is extremely valuable for both the school and NBC as it means the Irish get comparable TV revenue to other high-level Power Five schools. The extension very likely means that Notre Dame won’t be joining a conference in football anytime soon.
The announcement came just before Notre Dame’s last NBC game of the 2023 season kicked off.
Very much expected, but will be interesting to see what the figures are. Most believe that Notre Dame’s total media distribution will be on par with Big Ten programs. https://t.co/RJNUWQ45iC
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 18, 2023
NBC’s extension with the school also means that its 2023 college football TV lineup will remain the same for the foreseeable future. NBC is in the first year of its deal to broadcast Big Ten games as the conference signed a deal with Fox, CBS and NBC for its TV rights.
The deal was not a surprise. Longtime Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced over the summer that he would retire in 2024 and Notre Dame said that former NBC Sports executive Pete Bevecqua would replace him. Appointing Bevecqua to replace Swarbrick and the school pivoting away from its decades-long deal with NBC would have been a surprise larger than USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten.
